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by Greg Niemann, additional images by Lynda McBride Staples
Baja Buffs, in recalling their initial ventures to Baja California, often mention who, or what, might have inspired them and also kept them “coming back.”
Among the gurus and authors who opened the eyes of numerous aficionados to the wonders down south was Ben Hunter, a popular Los Angeles newscaster in the 1950s and ‘60s. His 1978 book The Baja Feeling described his love affair with Baja which resulted in Ben and his wife Margie eventually buying and remodeling their own Baja getaway home.
By the ‘70s I already had a rustic Baja trailer and cabana and my wife and I were further enchanted by his book. It gave us ideas for future Baja excursions, and encouraged us to build a larger home. Ben’s touching adventures rekindled our Baja interests.
In the early 1950s television began entering homes. So our family also acquired a small black and white screen TV with a rooftop antenna that needed adjusting every time the wind blew.
One early TV personality was Ben Hunter who hosted a daily 2½ hour Movie Matinee/talk show on KTTV (Channel 11), one of the only three local Los Angeles channels. I was a teenager but still watched his show.
Hunter was popular with credits far beyond his daily TV show. As a writer/producer, he originated the radio talk show The Nightowl Club from 1949 to 1960. He earned an Emmy for an innovative television adoption for orphans series. He and his wife Margie earned an additional three Emmys for producing The Elementary News.
Needing a respite from the demands of the studio, and nudged by the ongoing infamous Watts Riots in August 1965, Ben and Margie decided to get away for a breather. Their choice to cross the border into Baja California changed their lives!
While they’d been to Mexican tourist locations before, driving deep into Baja would be a new and formidable challenge for them. Totally inexperienced, ill-equipped, and driving an aging Pontiac Tempest, they set out to challenge the notoriously bad roads of the peninsula. To add to the challenge, they claimed the only Spanish they knew at the time was “Buenos Dias” and “Gracias.”
That initial 1965 adventure began by taking the old winding road from Tijuana and arriving in Ensenada after dark where they finally found some sand dunes south of town where they literally threw the sleeping bag down on the ground.
Before Highway 1 the pavement ended at Colonet and initially the dirt road seemed to them as a “piece of cake” – for the first five miles that is! Then it lived up to its reputation.
Ben wrote, “There were huge rocks and bumps in the center of it that could knock out an oil pan or transmission with one blow; there were chuckholes that could swallow an entire wheel. Dust, piled like snow on either side of the tracks would drift around in your tires making them spin helplessly. This hideous monster of a wild road meandered off to the south, a skinny ribbon stretching as far as the eye could see.”
Undaunted, the Hunters continued, often turning off the road to explore, or skinny-dip in the ocean as often as they could.
“Ever since we had crossed the border....all other concerns seemed to belong to another world, another place in time. They were no longer part of us. Neither was the future. We felt as if we existed solely in the present. We were as carefree as feathers, wafted on the warm breezes of Baja, savoring every moment.”
That initial 10-day trip had them hooked. They interacted with the friendly, helpful locals and enjoyed bantering with inquisitive kids wherever they went. Ben wrote: “As we resumed our drive southward on ‘The Road,’ we talked about that wonderful feeling we had—a high that no chemicals could ever produce—and we decided to call it ‘The Baja Feeling.’”
Back home they bought a Spanish-English dictionary and during 1966 made several Baja excursions in their Tempest. To expand their Mexican experience, that year they also rented a camper and drove down the Mexican mainland to Mazatlan and beyond.
It was Baja, however, that kept drawing them back, bad roads and all. As it would be almost a decade before Highway 1 opened, they decided to buy a 4-wheel drive vehicle to find those idyllic beaches and camping sites. All future trips would thus be with their “Toy,” a Toyota Land Cruiser, and “Taco,” a mongrel dog that would become their constant Baja companion.
The “Toy” got them to beaches and coves not available in a 2-wheel drive vehicle. Adding to the experience, they acquired more and more amenities for each trip, including an inflatable boat which they had lashed atop the vehicle.
They especially enjoyed camping in the remote beaches south of San Felipe on the gulf. There, while Taco romped and chased birds, they wandered the beach, explored, delighted in the solitude, and often went clamming at low tide.
Ben wrote, “There were still new beaches to be discovered in Baja, and new adventures around each turn in the road.”
They loved the longer adventures but when time was short, continued to return to what they called their “secret place” near the border. They even talked about the possibility of building a home there, but they did not get serious about a Baja home until they spent time at Los Barrilles below La Paz.
In 1971 Ben had a heart attack and the show went off the air. Before work resumed, the Hunters went on a doctor-approved mandatory three-month hiatus. They flew to La Paz, rented a VW, and headed south. Falling in love with a house in the East Cape community of Los Barrilles, they made an offer to buy it. However, the title was not quite clear and the deal fell apart.
Continuing to find isolated beaches throughout Baja, in 1974 Ben and Margie found an beautiful sand spit near San Quintin called Colonia de Sudoeste and camped on the barren beach. Surprised to find a family living nearby, they were more surprised to find a severely polio-crippled 9-year-old child named Ricardo.
They befriended the family during their visits and even lined up a medical team to perform surgery to straighten Ricardo’s legs. However, the proud family was shy and reserved and his legs were never straightened.
The Hunters’ old campsite there is now a small beach community called La Cholera. One of today’s residents is well-known Baja guru Ron Gomez Hoff who offers considerable information on his website Talk Baja. He mentioned that Ricardo, now in his mid-60s, still lives there, “He’s still around and active here.”
While the Hunters had their favorite camping places that they kept returning to, they still coveted having their own Baja home. They finally bought a trim house complete with red-tiled roof at Ejido Chapultepec, on the beach south of Ensenada. Their Baja trips became more geared to renovations and partying, but it was just a shift of focus.
Unfortunately Ben died in 1980, only two years after his book came out, but Margie was able to enjoy the house for years thereafter.
When my wife and I acquired a mongrel Baja dog shortly after reading The Baja Feeling, of course it had to be named “Taco” and our Taco also loved chasing Baja birds on the beach.
An interesting side-note about The Baja Feeling is that it was illustrated (cover and several inside pages) by John Wheeldon, who at the time was considered one of America's most distinguished portrait painters.
His World War II action paintings have hung in the United States Coast Guard Academy. He also had a lifetime contract to do the portraits each year of the Oscar-winning Best Actor and Best Actress awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Among other notable commissions, he has done covers for such national magazines as Liberty and The Saturday Evening Post.
While Ben Hunter had numerous professional friends and associates in the entertainment industry, his book The Baja Feeling revealed he was more comfortable in the land down south. His book dedication thus simply said: “To my mistress, Baja.”
